Supermarkets have taken over our lives. The branded goods that control our weekly shopping trolley groan under the sheer weight of false allegiance. Loyalty counts for very little these days. I know that when I do the shopping I speed around the ailses putting the same goods in my trolley that I did last week. However, the sections I struggle with the most is the meat section and the produce section.

The produce section always looks so fresh, so beautifully presented, its screaming eat me!! This experience is short-lived. The moment you raise hand to mouth and chew, first impressions are shattered and the tastebuds tell you the truth about what u have purchased.

In my mind the battle lines have been drawn. Many of us buy fruit and vegetables on a regular basis, mainly out of guilt and pressure. We have to ensure the kids are getting fruit and vegetables into their diet. I have a 6 month old just started on solids. His favorite food is sweet potato followed by pear, these were also my 3 year olds favorites too, trying to get a vegetable or piece of fruit into him now is a nightmare. I wish I understood why kids suddenly switch off a button one day and say, no more fruit and veggies.

There are so many nutritional values to fresh produce. How much from our local supermarket produce I don’t know. Either much of it has been sprayed with ‘we don’t know what’, or we peel and wash it so much that we wash out most of its nutriuent content.

On the positive, let’s look at what produce can contain.

Antioxidants – everything claims to contain antioxidants from tea bags to shampoo. I’m tired of seeing this advertising word on many of the items I buy. Antioxidants help guard against cancer and slow the process of ageing. (Now I know why so many foods proclaim to contain antioxidants). Fruit and veggies contain thousands of antioxidants that gives it their unique colours, aromas and flavours. The two sources of highest levels of antioxidants are blueberries and wine grapes. Tomatoes, cabbage, broccoli, kale, strawberries and watercress all contain this vital nutrient. The theory goes that that the darker the skin of the fruit or vegetable that more antioxidants that it contains.

Garlic is a great vegetable that helps boost the immune system and helps prevent cardiovascular disease. It is far better to eat this healthy diet than eat rubbish and think that because we take a couple of multi-vitamins a day we will preserve our health and our bodies.

Given that food is so important to our wellbeing, that you might expect it to have the appropriate price tag. But we are conditioned to think that food should be as a cheap as possible. This race to the bottom by supermarket competition has done the most damage to our attitudes about food. I also notice that the majority of specials that the supermarket has on in any given week are in the cake, biscuit and soft drink isles.

For these and many other reasons this is why I am such a strong advocate for grow your own. You will know exactly where they have been grown, what they have been sprayed with (hopefully nothing) and you will pick them when they are ripe, unlike the supermarkets. If you can’t grow your own, search out a local farmers market, or use roadside stalls. I love going for a drive any buying my weeks fruit and veggies from a stall on the side of the road.

If you choose the right fruit and vegetable varieties, it is possible to grow a good deal of the family’s food in a suburban backyard, even on a balcony. Box and hanging basket grow just as well as a raised garden bed. Growing your own is all about taking back control of our own health and helping to minimise our damage to the environment. Through growing your own and sharing some with a neighbour, you may unknowningly plant a seed in their mind to try growing their own.

One of the contacts I have made since starting my business is James Bray, a nutritionist with the University of Newcastle, here in NSW. After an exchange of emails, James kindly sent me some fascinating articles about studies that have been carried out in the United States into educating kids through setting up vegetable gardens in Schoolyards. This wonderful tool that not only educates kids where some of their supermarket food comes from, also enhances, through practical application, the maintenance of these gardens, teamwork, psychosocial development and cooperation will their peers.

Over 2,000 gardens in the state of California have schoolyard programs established, and many more nationwide. There are official government programs such as Farm-to-School, and Edible Schoolyard, that run a 12 and 17 week program that not only includes classroom theory but also takes the kids into the schoolyard to establish and grows vegetables for consumption, selling at local markets or school fetes. Alternatively some schools have set up kitchens where the children can learn basic cookery with the produce they have grown.

These programs are primarily run for kids between the ages of 7-11, a prime age to teach the basic of not only healthy eating, but environmental concern and basic science. Schools also invite local farmers in to talk about traditional and modern farming, its challenges and future sustainability methods. Within some of these programs schools have made agreements with farmers that local produce will be used in school meals and in exchange school trips are made where children can observe a working farm.

There are of course hurdles to overcome when establishing such a program, such as who looks after the beds after the program has finished, how to avoid graffiti or damage from uninvolved persons and maintenance throughout a holiday period. Teachers, followed by parent volunteers and then students continued to maintain the beds once the program was finished or over the holiday period throughout many of the schools in California. Another interesting point to note is that one school in California recorded that the children involved in such a program felt more attached to the school and motivated them to work harder and engage themselves in many other topic areas.

Although there has been little study into the consumption of eating fruit and vegetables and obesity, “inadequate consumption of vegetables among adolescents has been correlated with a range of poorer academic and health outcomes”(Ozer, E. 2006). Broader school curriculum can reinforce the practical teaching that is done in the schoolyard. Probably the most important support from an educational stance is to cease selling soft drinks and unhealthy food options in the canteen during school hours.

There is currently a study being conducted here in Australia into the health benefits of having schoolyard gardens. I look forward to the results. Growing produce in school is not just about digging around in the dirt for a few weeks, observing something grow until it has matured ready to harvest. Growing produce needs to be taught hand in hand with nutrition, environmental awareness and science. This combination will help teach our children that the only way to establish a sustainable world, populated by healthy people, is to engage schools and communities into growing their produce locally and teaching the basics of healthy living.

www.edibleschoolgardens.org
www.farmtoschool.org